Tuesday, 21 August 2018

Opposition MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa has continued
to gnaw into President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s narrow and disputed electoral
victory, tearing it bit-by-bit in a move aimed at whittling the declared
victory to below percentage of the vote.

In his heads of argument Chamisa, through the aid of
technical experts, argued that his opponent had not even reached the 50% mark,
but was instead gifted votes by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec).

“It is clear that Mnangagwa fell far short of the 50%+1
votes required to avoid a run-off. On the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec)’s
published results, Mr Mnangagwa avoided a run-off by a mere 31 830 votes.
However, the evidence presented shows that, at least 7 730 of these votes must
be excluded due to double counting of polling stations, A further

8 944 has been removed from the tally by Zec. A further 9
592 votes for Mnangagwa at “ghost polling stations” also fall to be
disregarded,” Chamisa argued.

Chamisa brought a total of 36 609 votes (after Zec made
adjustments) before the courts using the data provided by Zec, which he wants
knocked off Mnangagwa’s total, before going out to lay a case on over 700 000
votes which he said were brought through the back door.

“At least 10 343 votes for Mr Mnangagwa must also be
excluded, as they do not correlate with the sample of V11 forms. A full sample
will likely reveal many more inflated results,” he said as he reached his total
to force a run-off.

He claimed that what was before the Constitutional Court
was just a tip of the iceberg and more errors could be in the offing.

“These are, but a small sample of the discrepancies and
irregularities. Even on this small sample, it is clear that the irregularities
affected the outcome of the elections.

At the very least, Mnangagwa would have faced a run-off if
the results had been calculated correctly,” he said.

Chamisa further accused Zec of violating the law in regard
to the discrepancy between total votes cast in the National Assembly poll and
that of the presidency.

“Zec had through its handbook directed thus, if a voter
declines to accept a ballot paper for anyone or more of the elections, this
must be brought to the attention of the presiding officer. The presiding
officer shall not hand the applicant a ballot paper for that election and shall
record the details on this person on form PE2005/AA [Electoral Act Section
56(3a)]”

Chamisa submitted that at many polling stations, based on
Zec’s own results, the number of votes cast for the presidential election
exceeded the number of votes cast for each parliamentary election.

“Zec has, however, not produced returns on form PE2005/AA
showing that those voters declined to participate in parliamentary elections.
It seeks to rely instead on speculation,” Chamisa said. Newsday